FLAME TESTS

This page describes how to do a flame test for a range of metal ions, and briefly describes how the flame colour arises. Flame tests are used to identify the presence of a relatively small number of metal ions in a compound. Not all metal ions give flame colours. For Group 1 compounds, flame tests are usually by far the easiest way of identifying which metal you have got. For other metals, there are usually other easy methods which are more reliable - but the flame test can give a useful hint as to where to look.

The colours The colours in the table are just a guide. Almost everybody sees and describes colours differently. I have, for example, used the word "red" several times to describe colours which can be quite different from each other. Other people use words like "carmine" or "crimson" or "scarlet", but not everyone knows the differences between these words - particularly if their first language isn't English.

flame colour Li Na K Rb Cs Ca red strong persistent orange lilac (pink) red (reddish-violet) blue? violet? (see below) orange-red

Sr Ba Cu Pb

red pale green blue-green (often with white flashes) greyish-white

What do you do if you have a red flame colour for an unknown compound and don't know which of the various reds it is? Get samples of known lithium, strontium (etc) compounds and repeat the flame test, comparing the colours produced by one of the known compounds and the unknown compound side by side until you have a good match.

The origin of flame colours Flame colours are produced from the movement of the electrons in the metal ions present in the compounds. For example, a sodium ion in an unexcited state has the structure 1s22s22p6. When you heat it, the electrons gain energy and can jump into any of the empty orbitals at higher levels - for example, into the 7s or 6p or 4d or whatever, depending on how much energy a particular electron happens to absorb from the flam

e. Because the electrons are now at a higher and more energetically unstable level, they tend to fall back down to where they were before - but not necessarily all in one go. An electron which had been excited from the 2p level to an orbital in the 7 level, for example, might jump back to the 2p level in one go. That would release a certain amount of energy which would be seen as light of a particular colour. However, it might jump back in two (or more) stages. For example, first to the 5 level and then back to the 2 level. Each of these jumps involves a specific amount of energy being released as light energy, and each corresponds to a particular colour. As a result of all these jumps, a spectrum of coloured lines will be produced. The colour you see will be a combination of all these individual colours. The exact sizes of the possible jumps in energy terms vary from one metal ion to another. That means that each different ion will have a different pattern of spectral lines, and so a different flame colour.

Group I Lithium ions Sodium ions Potassium ions Rubidium ions Caesium ions Li+ Na+ K+ Rb+ Cs+ Group II red yellow/orange lilac red/purple blue

Calcium ions Strontium ions Barium ions

Ca2+ Sr2+ Ba2+

brick red crimson apple green

What is continuous spectrum?

When white light from any source such as sun, a bulb, etc. is analysed by passing through a prism, it is observed that it splits into seven colour of diffrent wavelenght from voildt to red. This light is so continuous that they merge with each other. Thatz why, continuous spectrum. In this red colour with the longest wavelenght deviated least.